Tarántula

In Desert Rock, Arizona, a disfigured man is found dead and identified by Professor Gerald Deemer (Leo G. Carroll) as his assistant and friend Dr. Eric Jacobs, who would suffer from acromegalia. The country doctor Matt Hastings (John Agar) is puzzled with the mysterious disease and decides to investigate further about acromegalia. Professor Deemer omits that Dr. Eric Jacobs and Dr. Paul Lund were researching with him a nutrient to increase the food supply in the world and they have been affected by the experiment. Soon Paul Lund, who has also been affected and is mad, breaks and sets the laboratory on fire and a huge tarantula escapes.

Meanwhile, the gorgeous Stephanie "Steve" Clayton (Mara Corday) arrives in town to work with Dr. Jacobs, and Dr. Hastings drives her to Professor Deemer's house in the desert. She is hired by Deemer and she finds that he is sick. When cattle bones are found in a farm, Hastings collects material and flies to a laboratory, where he learns that the sample is of tarantula's venom. But the scientist does not believe that one tarantula could ever produce such quantity of venom. The doctor returns to Desert Rock sure that the species is part of Prof. Deemer's experiment and the locals are threatened by the dangerous tarantula.

"Tarantula" is a typical sci-fi of the 50's and a surprisingly good film. The screenplay is very well written and the movie is supported by good direction, performances, cinematography and special effects. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Tarântula!" ("Tarantula!")

Note: On 16 Sep 2018 I saw this film again.

This is the story of a giant spider, told with the craft so often seen in older movies.

We have the "mad" scientist, who is quite a three dimensional character, who causes gigantic mutations in animals. A fire destroys all but one, a tarantula that grows to immense size.

People are prey to this arachnid. There are many scary scenes. Two men camping out are assailed, and there is the famous scene with the jeep. When the military fail to stop the spider, the commander leaves two men behind in a jeep which won't start. Apparently, it was serviced by a Louisville mechanic.

Clint Eastwood makes an appearance at the end, as a pilot.

But Agar, Carroll, and a stunningly beautiful Corday are the stars of this show.

There are thrills, logical sequences of events, and identifiable characters which makes this greatly entertaining. It is action packed, mixed in with good drama.

Tarantula is a classic example of a 1950s science runs amuck movie. It's a fairly simple movie and plot with all the characteristics of a sci fi, horror movie from the 50s. Nothing very special or unique about it but the film is still a lot of fun to watch. It's has the excitement and dramatic scenes that would have made this a great drive in movie or late night show. As long as you don't take things too seriously, just sit back and relax, it can be a nice reminder of the past that is still interesting to todays viewer. If you liked watching other sci fi, horror movies made in the early to mid 50s, you will also enjoy this one. I don't think you will be disappointed.

This is one of those films which starts off with a bang, slows down with a big lull in the middle section, and then finishes strong.

Kudos to the special-effects people to make the giant tarantula scenes look pretty good, even by today's standards some 50 years after this was made. Many times, the huge spider looks real while it's crawling down the road. I would like to have seen one or two more scenes of it in that middle section which would have kept viewers on edge throughout the film. Instead, it got a bit talky in spots.

Anyway, it still entertained and it was fun for me to see Leo G. Carroll, a guy I saw each week growing up watching "Topper" on television. Carroll played, by far, the most interesting character in this movie.

The acting was good in here, too, once again above '50s sci-fi standards. It was one of the better entries in the recently-released Sci-Fi Ultimate DVD set, offered at Best Buy. A pretty good transfer, too.

This one has a special place in my memories ! I grew up in New Mexico near the desert, and whenever they showed this one on the late night science fiction Saturday night TV thriller show, I was afraid to walk to school and back on Monday! As I have grown up over the last forty years, I have come to appreciate it as a well crafted science fiction near classic! Jack Arnold directed many good sci-fi movies in the 1950's, but there is no doubt this was the creepiest! Next to the superior "THEM", released the year before (at a different studio), this UNIVERSAL STUDIOS chiller was , for my money, the second best of the giant bug movies of that decade! You will never look at the desert the same way again. Actress MARA CORDAY impressed me so much in this one, that I named one of my daughters after her! JOHN AGAR gave a great performance, and this one led to him doing a string of more horror and sci-fi movies for the next decade or two! It helped that they used a real Tarantula (named TOMORROW), instead of a fake one, and Clifford Stine's special effects will convince you that spider is really 100 feet tall! Another plus is Henry Mancini wrote some of the music score! So, I recommend this one to all those that hate creepy crawlers of any kind! Get out the can of RAID! But, you had better make it a really big can !!!

Signed, Baron Beast